Traveling With Itzhak Perlman

Airports Can Be Quite A Performance, With Wheelchair And Violin

October 17, 1993|By Norma Libman. Special to the Tribune.

Itzhak Perlman does not like to travel. Right off, he tells you two perfectly good reasons.

The famed violinist, who is is equally at home with the Israeli Philharmonic and as a guest on "Sesame Street," says, "I find traveling a drag-a bit of an ordeal-and I suppose it's a drag for a lot of people. In my case, there are two reasons.

"First is because I do it so often that traveling for business takes away the pleasure of traveling for pleasure."

Perlman estimates that he is on the road for concert dates and other business-related travel slightly less than half the year.

"The second reason is the fact that I'm disabled, and things are much more difficult for me."

A bout with polio when he was 4 left Perlman with a choice of riding in a scooter-type wheelchair device or walking on crutches, whichever fits the circumstances better. He left his native Israel for the first time at age 13 to perform in New York.

He never has traveled without the dual concerns of protecting his violin and getting around with his disability.

Finding places that suit his and his family's needs for pleasure travel is not always easy.

"We don't go to just one particular place," he says. "We try everything, but we usually look for a place where there's sun. There's an awful lot of research we have to do first, primarily whether a place has stairs.

"I have a scooter that's wonderful if there are no stairs. But there aren't too many places that are totally accessible and people don't always know what `accessible' means."

Perlman says that one step here and there can make for big problems. Sometimes people don't notice the steps, even if they're familiar with the location.

"Sometimes when I want to go to a restaurant in my neighborhood, even though I pass it all the time, I have to stop and think whether or not it has a step."

Recently Perlman, now 48, traveled to Italy on a vacation and concert tour with his wife, Toby, and five children, aged 9 to 24. Their stay in Venice may have been the greatest travel challenge he has faced.

"In Venice all travel is on boats. They had a special boat for the disabled, which was the most frightening experience I've ever had. It was a small boat with a little platform for me to go across. Two guys sort of held the boat to the pier so it wouldn't slip away, and that was the safety plan that they had in place. I gave up the notion of using the chair and stepped on to the platform and held on for dear life.

"Everything in Venice was difficult in some way, but I did it, and actually it was a lot of fun. But it was not an ideal situation."

Having to wait for a wheelchair in an airport is almost always exasperating, Perlman says.

"It's still a kind of hit-or-miss situation as to whether you get the help that you need. Still, I keep plugging away, a little more efficiently each time. I've had good conversations on the plane with the people who clean or load the meals for the next flight while I wait for my wheelchair."

Bathrooms in airplanes are a problem too, one with which any airline traveler can identify. Perlman, who maintains a sense of humor about the difficulties of travel and his own particular challenges, says, "Some bathrooms are so small you don't actually go into them, you wear them."

His violin always travels with him and, except for two types of planes in which the compartments are too small, rides overhead. He rides First Class whenever possible, primarily for the extra room, and says if the violin doesn't fit overhead the crew always finds a safe place for it, in the cockpit with the pilot if necessary.

"I don't have to buy a special seat for the violin," he says. "The cellists are the ones who have to do that."

When Perlman travels for concerts he goes the night before if he has a rehearsal in the morning, or the same day if the rehearsal is not until afternoon.

If he travels out of the United States and encounters a significant time change, he needs extra time to rest. And he never schedules himself on the last flight of the day.

"I always make sure that there's a flight after mine, in case I miss that one. I almost never miss a flight, though, unless there are some traffic or weather problems."

Most of the time Perlman travels alone, even great distances, such as to Japan. But when his children were younger, he and his wife traveled with them all the time.

"It's all a question of experience," he says. "You learn to give babies a bottle just before the plane starts to ascend so their ears won't bother them. You learn to be organized so you don't lose a kid who's wandering about the airport. That sort of thing.

"When we traveled with one child we thought it was the most difficult thing in the world. Then when we traveled with two we longed for the good old days when we only had one. When we traveled with four we thought back to what a cinch it was to travel with two. Every time you fly, something happens and then you know for the next time."

When Perlman took his first trip, from Tel Aviv to New York, there were no jets, and the trip took 22 hours.

"On that first trip I flew on Britannia Airlines on a huge airplane that they called `The Whispering Giant.' I've flown on a lot of airlines since then, many of which no longer exist."

What has he learned in all that time?

"Travel is a necessary thing for me. I still basically rely on the help of people, to carry my violin or whatever. What bothers me the most about airplane travel, though, is the food. It stinks. It's really disgusting, especially on the airlines in the United States. In Europe it's much better, and I don't understand why we can't do as well."